Underground parking garage



E. G. BIANCA UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE May 12, 1964 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 3, 1961 FIG. 2

lllllvlll INVENTOR. EDOARDO GIUSEPPE BIANCA HIS ATTORNEYS May 12, 1964 E. G. BIANCA 3,132,752

UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE Filed April 3, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. EDOARDO GIUSEPPE BIANCA HIS ATTORNEYS May 12, 1964 Filed April 3, 1961 E. G. BIANCA 3,132,752

UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE 3 Sheets-$heet 3 HIS ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,132,752 UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE Edoardo Giuseppe Bianca, Zollikon, Zurich, Switzerland,

assignor to Silopark S.A., St. Moritz, Switzerland, a

company of Switzerland Filed Apr. 3, 1961, Ser. No. 100,251 Claims priority, application Austria Apr. 6, 1960 Claims. (Cl. 214-161) The invention relates to an underground parking garage.

Parking garages are usually needed in the centers of large cities where the available space is very limited. Underground parking garages have to be built where, for town planning or other reasons, only underground space is available, and more economical elevated parking structures cannot be erected. Usually, the only available underground space is beneath open squares, and these squares are very rarely large enough to permit the excavation necessary for accommodating the construction without consideration of the buildings bordering the squares.

For the preceding reasons, it is necessary to provide underground parking garages with the highest possible capacity in small to medium-size squares and in the immediate vicinity of existing buildings, the age of which often involves considerable factors of insecurity with regard to the kind and quality of the foundations.

Ramp-type parking garages are known which consist of several stories which are connected by means of ramps.

Ramp garages require a large ground area. Their operation is satisfactory only when about half of their storage capacity is reached. Then, however, undue waiting periods or excessive labor and management expenditures result from the need for maneuvering the vehicles in the stories. The ramp-type structure requires a building volume of approximately 120 cubic meters per car space, and as the depth of the construction is restricted by the depth of the surrounding foundations, the required parking space generally cannot be attained with ramp garages beneath existing squares. Also proper ventilation of a ramp-type garage creates a difiicult problem, owing to the production of exhaust gases, thereby materially contributing to the expenses of construction and operation.

Further, mechanical parking garages of cellular design are known in which the vehicles are moved into and removed from selected stalls by means of mechanical conveying devices and trucks, such as dollies, elevators, traveling towers or mechanical transfer devices. The mechanical installations and the automatic controls therefor are relatively expensive, however, and they are operated with a maximum financial return only when they are used to full capacity.

It is the object of the invention to combine the advantages of a ramp-type parking garage with those of a mechanical parking structure without experiencing the disadvantages of both individual systems. The invention consists of the combination of a ramp-type parking garage having preferably one or two stories only, with a mechanical parking structure of cellular construction, the housing of the cellular construction of the mechanical parking structure being arranged underneath the ramp garage and having a smaller base area than the ramp garage. Preferably, the housing of the mechanical parking structure is arranged centrally underneath the ramp garage, the mechanical loading and unloading facilities for the vehicles, such as entrance and exit boxes, being located in the lowest story of the ramp garage.

According to the invention, the ramp-type technique is used for the part of the garage that can be built without difficulties, i.e. preferably the first and possibly a second story. This ramp-type garage part serves to accommodate the vehicles from the street level through the ramp,

3,132,752 Patented May 12, 1964 and for providing an underground reserve storage space and the access facilities for the mechanical garage. The mechanical garage, which is loaded from the lowest ramp story, may contain any of the known mechanisms, such as traveling towers, elevators, and mechanical transfer devices. The capacity of the mechanical garage is selected so as to ensure a high degree of permanent utilization, the ramp part being designated for feeding the same, compensating at the same time for fluctuations of turnover.

The combination of ramp and mechanical garages provides the advantage that the mechanical garage requires, per car, a fraction of the space which would be necessary for a ramp-type garage, i.e. approximately 50 cubic meters per car space. Thus, according to the invention, it is possible to place the boundaries of the mechanical parking garage at a convenient distance from the adjoining buildings.

An advantage of the invention resides in avoiding the need for expensive safety measures during excavation as well as underpinning the foundations, since the whole garage can be constructed outside or above the gradient of slope of propagation of the pressure of the existing foundations, whereby the risk associated with this kind of underground construction is substantially eliminated.

Another advantage resides in the easy adaptability of the structure to the shape of excavation having a natural angle of slope, whereby the building expenses can be substantially reduced. In those cases in which, due to geological conditions, building the garage partly into the ground water cannot be avoided, only a fraction of the cost of a corresponding ramp-type parking garage would be required, since only a small area of the mechanical garage part has to be built into the water, whereas the ramp-type garage part can always be arranged above the ground-water level.

Moreover, the system of the invention permits the advantages of the ramp-type parking garage to be combined with those of the mechanical parking structure without detrimental eifects, since even in an entirely underground structure the major part of the car spaces, i.e. the mechanically operated cubicles, do not require any ventilation (CO-content) and heating, which are indispensible with a regular ramp-type garage.

Finally it is emphasized that-When the available underground space is regarded as the prism or inverted pyramid formed by the surface of the earth and the slopes of pressure of the adjoining buildings-the combined garage system of the invention permits the accommodation of a much larger number of car spaces than the known structures.

The principles of the invention are illustrated in FIGS 1 to 8, diagrammatically.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are cross sections of the underground space which can be utilized without endangering the foundations of existing buildings adjoining on one or two sides.

FIG. 3 1s a horizontal plan of the ramp part and the mechanical part with a building adjoining on one side.

FIG. 4 is a similar representation for the case, where adjoining buildings exist on two opposite sides.

FIG. 5 is an analogous representation with buildings adjoining on four sides.

FIG. 6 shows a cross section of the underground parking garage having a ground plan as shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view of the underground parking garage having a ground plan according to FIG. 4 or 5.

FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view of the underground garage having a stepped-back ramp part.

The arrangement illustrated in the drawings by way of example presents the following details:

In FIGS. 3 to ground plans of some possible arrangements are illustrated, in which 1 is the ground plan of the ramp part, and 2 is the ground plan of the subjacent body of the cellular construction of the mechanical part. From this it is obvious that the structure part 1 can be built close to the adjoining buildings 3, whereas the subjacent mechanical part 2 having a smaller ground area is spaced at a distance away from the vertical lateral alignment(s) of the ramp part 1 and thereby remote from the buildings 3 so far as to permit optimum utilization of the space 4 shown in section in FIGS. 1 and 2, which space can be used without danger and additional building expenses. In FIG. 1 the limit of the site is indicated by 5, which limit must not be overstepped for legal reasons.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are cross sectional views of a complete underground parking garage corresponding to the given ground plans according to FIGS. 3 and 4. There, a one-story ramp garage part is indicated by 1; 6 is the ramp connecting the surface of the square with the first underground story 1, and 2 is the subjacent mechanical parking garage structure, the mechanical parking mechanism 7 of which is loaded from the ramp part 1. 8 is the natural angle of slope under which the excavation can be made without endangering the adjoining foundations, thus saving further costly safety measures.

FIG. 8 shows, again with buildings adjoining on two sides, an embodiment in which the ramp part 1 consists of two stories 1 and 1a, which are stepped back in cross section and which communicate with the street level by ramps 6 and 6a. Underneath the ramp garage, the mechanical parking garage 2 having a parking mechanism '7 is arranged for loading from the lowest story In. The arrangement of the ramps is given by example only, and may be carried out in any way suited for local conditions. Furthermore, in FIG. 8 the boundary lines 9 of the angles of slope of pressure of the foundations of the adjoining buildings 3 are shown. Within boundary lines or planes, the stress of adjacent foundations is propagated as earth pressure and,

therefore, the area defined by these lines or planes cannot be exceeded without adopting special safety measures (pile blanking, underpinning the foundations, and the like). The example shows the high degree of utilization of the space excavated without safety measures, attained with the system according to the invention. As mentioned above, a very high degree of utilization and minimum building expenses are achieved.

What I claim is:

1. An underground parking garage comprising a ramp-type parking garage having two stories, a fully mechanical parking garage of cellular design, said mechanical parking garage being disposed centrally underneath the ramp garage and having a smaller base area than said ramp garage, the second story of the ramp garage being of reduced area and located within planes which extend through the lower edges of the first story of said ramp garage and the lowest story of the mechanical parking garage.

2. An underground parking garage comprising a ramp-type parking garage having not more than two stories, a fully mechanical parking garage of cellular design, said mechanical parking garage being disposed underneath the ramp garage and having a smaller base area than said ramp garage, the second story of the ramp garage being of reduced area and located within planes which extend through the lower edges of the first story of said ramp garage and the lowest story of the mechanical parking garage.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,915,973 Black et a1. lune 27, 1933 2,916,166 Bigler Dec. 8, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 416,781 Great Britain Sept. 18, 1934 OTHER REFERENCES Basic Soils EngineeringTA-710-H57, pp. 189, 190, 295', 298. 

1. AN UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE COMPRISING A RAMP-TYPE PARKING GARAGE HAVING TWO STORIES, A FULLY MECHANICAL PARKING GARAGE OF CELLULAR DESIGN, SAID MECHANICAL PARKING GARAGE BEING DISPOSED CENTRALLY UNDERNEATH THE RAMP GARAGE AND HAVING A SMALLER BASE AREA THAN SAID RAMP GARAGE, THE SECOND STORY OF THE RAMP GARAGE BEING OF REDUCED AREA AND LOCATED WITHIN PLANES WHICH EXTEND THROUGH THE LOWER EDGES OF THE FIRST STORY OF SAID RAMP GARAGE AND THE LOWEST STORY OF THE MECHANICAL PARKING GARAGE. 